Alternative Medicine

The term alternative medicine refers broadly to methods and practices used in place of or in addition, the conventional medical treatments to cure or mitigate disease. The precise scope of alternative medicine is the subject of some debate and depends largely on what is meant by 'conventional medicine'. You may be asked to write a research paper debating on alternative medicine, which is further complicated by the diversity of treatments that are categorized as "alternative". These include practices that incorporate spiritual foundations, religious or metaphysical, as well as non-Western medical traditions, approaches to healing and several other newly developed. Supporters of a type of alternative medicine may reject others.

In an essay, you may define alternative medicine as diagnoses, treatments or therapies that may relieve people who are not legally authorized to diagnose and treat illnesses, but some doctors find value in using therapies as complementary medicine. Much of the scientific community define alternative medicine as any treatment whose efficacy and safety have not been checked and verified by controlled studies. This definition is not based on political views or protection skills, but turns exclusively on issues of efficacy and safety. It is therefore possible for a given category change in both directions as increasing knowledge about their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. The boundaries of alternative medicine have changed over time as some techniques and therapies previously considered "alternative" have been accepted by conventional medicine. The opposite is also true with methods of thought to be effective discarded when it is discovered that their effectiveness is only due to placebo effect, or if that is their side effects make the safety-benefit ratio is unfavorable.